


Take Me Out, Take Me Home

by sunspot (unavoidedcrisis)



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cave-In, Claustrophobia, F/M, Getting to Know Each Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidedcrisis/pseuds/sunspot
Summary: There's a cave in in an old mine. Lucky for the Inquisitor and Cullen, there's hope of rescue.
Relationships: Female Cadash/Cullen Rutherford
Comments: 13
Kudos: 16
Collections: Black Emporium 2020





	Take Me Out, Take Me Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whereismywarden (PearOh)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PearOh/gifts).



"Sera and Cass know we're here. And we're barely a day's ride to Caer Bronach. They're going for help and then they're coming back for us, Cullen."

Cullen stops pacing for a moment to look over at Inquisitor Cadash, leaning against the wall of the dilapidated mine. He opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

"So, sit the fuck down, you're freaking me out," she adds after a beat.

"My apologies, Inquisitor," Cullen says woodenly. He's oscillating rapidly between unable to take his eyes off the stone walls around them and pointedly fixing his stare on his boots. 

"Seriously, are you claustrophobic?" Malika asks, finally fixing him with a smirk, hoping her snark will draw him out of his clear panic.

Cullen doesn't reply.

"You are, aren't you? Okay, what do you need. You want me to breathe with you? Do you want to close your eyes? I can just distract you, or, or, what else?"

"Please," Cullen says, gritting it out through almost clenched teeth, "shut up."

"Oh."

She starts counting in her head, for lack of anything else to do. They'd already spent fifteen minutes inspecting the rock slide that had pinned them into the cave, but even with her being just about the worst dwarf that ever lived, she knew they couldn't do much from their side. They just had to wait until Cassandra and Sera brought more help and hopefully some smarter, dwarfier dwarf-types to move all the rock.

There's a crack in the ceiling, just wide enough to let some watery sunlight in. Malika's not afraid of suffocating, just of going cave-crazy.

After some time watching Cullen standing in the middle of the cave, clenching and unclenching his fists and not moving otherwise, she sees his eyes flutter open.

"Are you going to tell me how I can help you now?" Malika asks, trying to keep her tone mild and non-threatening.

"I'm sorry for snapping," he says. He's quiet, and the bad lighting is giving him a sickly, pale cast. She's worried he's going to pass out. "There's a lot I should have mentioned earlier. I'm sorry." His eyes close again.

"You know I was a templar?" he asks after another abnormally long pause.

"Yes?"

"And you realize this used to be a lyrium mine?"

She brings her hand to her mouth so fast she slaps herself (good, she deserves that). "Holy shit, are you going to be okay?"

"I am alive," he says. "And I am breathing, and I am upright, and that's all I can ask for at the moment, I think."

"How long have you been off the lyrium?"

"Six months, or thereabouts."

"Fuck," she says, whistling under her breath. "I'm sorry for being an ass then."

"No, don't apologize, you're just as stuck as I am, Inquisitor."

"Under the circumstances, we'll dispense with formalities, yeah?"

They stay like that, in silence, for another long while.

"You're shaking," she notes. Cullen nods, finally coming over to sit near her. She's feeling guilty. She asked him to accompany them to Crestwood so she could try to spend a little more time with him, but never meant for this to happen.

She doesn't know what to say. She's about as good at heartfelt dialogue as she is at rocks.

"Do you want to hear about the time my Granny Cadash fought off an ogre with a wooden spoon?"

Cullen opens one eye and looks at her. "Did she win?"

"You gotta hear the whole story. A one-liner won't cut it for this one."

"All right, tell me."

Granny Cadash is a three foot nine unstoppable Carta badass and she straight up murdered an ogre with a wooden spoon for having the nerve to rip one of her great-nephews in half (she also had a two handed battle axe and three bodyguards, only one of whom lost a leg in the fight, but ultimately, she killed it. With. A. Spoon). Maybe a one-liner would have sufficed, but Malika gets so pumped up every time she tells the full story. Who says there aren't bardic traditions among dwarves?

By the end of the tale, Cullen's sitting up with his eyes open. Malika is pretty proud of herself for distracting him, if even for a minute or two. 

"I never met my grandparents. Died before I was born."

"I'm sorry." Malika's not entirely sure if that's common or not; people just don't live as long as dwarves.

"I don't really think anything of it. But I'm glad you have family, Inquis-- Malika."

"I'm sure Granny would adopt you as one of her own. She likes tall boys."

Cullen laughs, a golden sound in the gloom, and for a split second it seems like he forgets where they are. Malika is definitely counting this as a win.

"Well, if I ever meet her…" He sobers up, clearly thinking that they're going to die in this old, mouldering mine.

"We're not going to die here," she tells him.

"Of course not. Cassandra will bring help."

"And Sera."

"Hmm. Cassandra will bring help," he repeats.

"Okay, fair enough. But look, you're feeling more optimistic already."

He glares, as if he needs to prove her wrong.

Malika snorts. "Fine, fine. No optimism. Only hard, gritty realism. Here's one for realism: I'm going to have to pee soon."

Cullen puts his face in his hands.

They're in for a long night.

* * *

Malika dozes off at some point and when she wakes up, Cullen's sitting across from her, one elbow up on one knee and his other leg is thrown out in front of him. He's shed a few layers of leathers and furs and is sitting in his shirt and breeches, even though it's actually kind of chilly surrounded by all this rock. He looks suspiciously comfortable.

"You okay?" she asks him.

"No," he says.

"Ooo-kay. Can I come sit next to you?"

He shrugs.

Malika moves to his side of the cave and settles in next to him. "Claustrophobia getting to you?"

He chuckles weakly. "Worse. I'm getting introspective."

"Oh, that's never good. Do you want to hear about the time Granny Cadash nearly blew up the whole village with her homemade whisky, blamed it on the mayor, got enough people believing her that they threw him out of office, and then got herself elected in his place?"

She relays all the best details, how Granny organized the local kids in the secret whisper campaign and how she nearly burned down the mayoral house a week after getting elected and had to blame that one someone too.

Cullen's laughing by the end and Malika feels good. The warmth coming off him is nice too. She doesn't understand how he's not chilly, but that might just be another weird thing about humans she doesn't get.

Somehow, in amongst the light conversation and the overwhelming boredom, Malika falls asleep again. She's not sure for how long, given the closest clock is past two tons of rubble and then a full day's ride away, but long enough there's a little patch of drool on Cullen's shoulder when she pulls her head away.

Oh, Maker's fucking breath. "Cullen, I'm so sorry, I --"

"Nothing of it. I'll admit I was asleep too. It's not like there's much else we can do while we wait. Go ahead and catch up on your sleep, Malika. I think that's something neither of us get enough of these days."

Being trapped in by a rock slide wasn't enough of a punishment, no, the ancestors had to trap her with _him_ and make sure she drooled a little too. Amazing.

Her embarrassment doesn't stop her from letting herself go soft and pliable when Cullen gently pulls her back against his shoulder and tilts his head to rest on top of hers.

There's a pebble jabbing her in the butt and her arm is stiff from being pinned between their bodies, but Cullen smells nice, like soap and sweat, and he's warm, and he's actively encouraging her to cuddle. So she takes a second to get as comfortable as she can and closes her eyes again.

* * *

There's a loud, shaking rumble that startles them both awake and onto their feet. Night has fallen now, and there's no light filtering into the pitch black now.

"Hello?" Malika calls out, wondering belatedly if it's not a rescue after all and instead another rock slide, one that might crush them or cut off their air supply.

They wait for a long time, standing still and waiting for… for something. But nothing happens, no further rumbles, no triumphant 'a-ha' from Cassandra suddenly popping in on them.

"Fucking fuck. I'm sorry, Cullen," Malika says, finally snapping. "I'm sorry I'm a shitty dwarf that can't do rocks, I'm _really_ sorry that we're trapped here and that I drooled on you. I'm sorry I dragged you out here in the first place, all for my own selfish reasons."

"Like what reasons?" he asks.

She hadn't been meaning to necessarily say all that.

"Just. Nothing. I thought it was time to get to know you better, that's all."

"Oh really?" Cullen says. There's an odd quality to his voice.

"I'm sorry. Really, really, really sorry."

There's another rumble and the rocks at the entrance really start to shift. He reaches out and grabs her, but in the dark, if he was aiming for her arm, well, he missed.

There's a stream of torchlight that pours in when the rocks fall away. Malika blinks the spots in her vision away. The first thing she sees is Sera's face, beaming, sticking her tongue out, looking mischievous… all the regular Sera things. All's right with the world in that instant.

"Oooh, looks like we interrupted," Sera calls out. "Should we brick it back up then, Inky?"

Malika bats Cullens hand off her boob. She jabs a finger at Sera. "Don't you fucking dare."

* * *

"Inquisitor," Cullen says, tapping lightly on the open door of Malika's room at Caer Bronach.

"Ugh, and we're back to that."

"Afraid so," he says, badly hiding a smile. "Umm… If you have a moment?"

"You're not sick of me?"

"Not quite yet. I was wondering if, and you can tell me no and I'll never bring it up again, but I was just wondering. You're probably not interested, but if you would be… honestly you can tell me to --"

This is the only time outside the mine she's ever seen him so flustered. It's kind of cute, kind of funny. Malika throws him a line. "To get on with it and just ask me?"

Cullen rubs the back of his neck and flushes scarlet. "Ah. Yes. Would you like to have dinner with me?"

Out of all the things he could have said, that she was not expecting.

"I'd… yeah. I think that would be… nice." It sounds foolish to her ears, but he smiles at her. Her knees don't go weak at his smile, but it's a near thing.

"Good, good. When we're back at Skyhold then. I'll… plan something."

Malika thinks it sounds like he's already planning something. She's a little giddy at the prospect, but reminds herself they said they would be friends. _Friends_. Just friends.

* * *

Friends, it needs to be said, don't light that many candles. There shouldn't be a bundle of posies on the chair if they're having dinner as friends. And Cullen shouldn't be fidgeting so much.

"This looks lovely," she says.

He looks at her for a long moment. Malika is going to make a joke about her height -- it shouldn't take so long to size her up -- but he breaks into a grin and she temporarily forgets what she wants to say.

"I didn't misread you?"

"I don't think so," she says, trying not to chuckle. "I don't think I was giving off signals left and right, or I wasn't trying to, but no, you didn't… This is good," she finishes lamely. Her face is on fire, but his smile hasn't wavered.

Cullen's office isn't big, and within the four walls, all dimly lit and sharing each other's space, Malika almost feels like they're back in the cave.

And this time, it's not so bad.

Dinner is... Malika doesn't remember, because he brushes the back of her hand with his fingertips when he pours her water, and nods along as she talks, looking genuinely interested.

He told her about his family, his brother and sisters, speaking fondly of them all. None of them sound half as fun as Granny Cadash, but that's probably a good thing.

When he starts waxing on about his nephew, Malika knows she's well and truly done for.

He asks a question. She answers, not having a single clue what just happened. Apparently, she answered right. Cullen tips his head back and laughs.

_Done. For._

"I had a wonderful time," she tells him, when dinner is wrapped up and she's run out of reasons to linger.

"Good, as did I," Cullen says. He's rubbing the back of his neck -- nerves, bashfulness, Malika's starting to learn he does it when he's feeling a lot of things at once. "We should, ah… Do it again. Sometime soon, preferably."

"I'll just be going now," she says, not going.

"Ah. Yes. It's getting late. I'll get the door," he says, not opening the door.

To kiss him, Malika's got to go up on her toes, which in itself is fine. She teeters a little, but Cullen steadies her with an arm slung around her waist. It's actually better than fine, she thinks. There could be a benefit to being so short.

The kiss is brief but charged. It hints at many things and Malika wants time to explore them all.

"Maker's breath," Cullen says, half as a sigh.

Malika beams. "Yeah, something like that."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Toshi, Sara, and A for help and support.


End file.
